Anime and Manga - I won’t allow your bones to stay on this planet. I will banish your evil soul.

[majestic]

A while ago, when I first heard of I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, I thought it would be a goofy zombie anime, why else would anyone want to eat someone's pancreas? Imagine my disappointment to learn it's one of those films.  

[Sarex]

16 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Yeah I'm not sure what to think of those anime. On the one hand I like to get hit into the feels, but on the other hand those stories always feel kinda... sexist to me. I dunno. The stories often cater to a very niche kind of people and it's just cringe. Would love to see something a little more nuanced.

Than you can try My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. The main character is pretty different there.

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

A while ago, when I first heard of I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, I thought it would be a goofy zombie anime, why else would anyone want to eat someone's pancreas? Imagine my disappointment to learn it's one of those films.  

I thought it would be horror-related as well, and when I glanced at it, I was thinking "okay, this could be interesting - the art style looks like all the other modern trash stuff that I hate, but who knows, maybe this is a Doki Doki Literature Club type situation, I might be able to jive with that...but wait, why would she recommend this to non-anime fans, that would seem to be pretty niche". Uh, no, no, it's exactly what it appears to be. Whoops.

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

Yeah I'm not sure what to think of those anime. On the one hand I like to get hit into the feels, but on the other hand those stories always feel kinda... sexist to me. I dunno. The stories often cater to a very niche kind of people and it's just cringe. Would love to see something a little more nuanced.

That said, I still liked the writing and the story of this one. It's just the main character that is so ugh. His whole shtick of what he said and why he is how he is just made me want to slap him in the face.

Yeah, I almost universally hate stuff that overtly feels like it's stroking the male ego, even stuff that should otherwise appeal to me (e.g. Princess Mononoke - though that obviously approaches it from a completely different angle compared to something like I Want to Eat Your Pancreas). It often causes me to immediately deconstruct it: "So the most completely a/pathetic guy with zero friends and social skills magically becomes close to HOT POPULAR GIRL...who randomly gloms onto him because she needs him due to her being terminally ill and inexplicably not having any other outlets because of asinine reasons that are quickly glossed over and which would never practically apply to any normal functioning person in real life, thereby giving him an opportunity that he doesn't really deserve to help him grow to be a better and more capable person over the course of the story completely at her expense as she declines in health - her entire existence and subsequent doom in the story ultimately proving to just make him better while providing some cheap sadness near the end." I only read like 15-20% of it, but that's probably more or less accurate in broad strokes, right? I hate it, just can't do it.

In this case, it was a long time friend of mine who is a married, adult woman that recommended it to me, so that doesn't really track...but on the other hand, I've known her since we were teenagers and she was a pretty instrumental part of making it so I never investigated anime to any great degree because everything contemporary I saw that she and most other anime/manga fans were interested in always looked mindbreakingly terrible to me, so, you know, it's ultimately pretty fitting, .

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Narutaru 5-8

I'm not going to summarize it because spoilers and the show is actually good, though it does feel uncanny. With JoJo, the show is so weird that summarizing it makes it sound too unbelievable. Narutaru isn't really like that, it's believable in broad strokes and feels like someone hid Evangelion in a shoujo wrapper. Yet there is still something off about it even still, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it really is an eldritch creature in the form of an anime.

[Lexx]

11 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I thought it would be horror-related as well, and when I glanced at it, I was thinking "okay, this could be interesting - the art style looks like all the other modern trash stuff that I hate, but who knows, maybe this is a Doki Doki Literature Club type situation, I might be able to jive with that...but wait, why would she recommend this to non-anime fans, that would seem to be pretty niche". Uh, no, no it's exactly what it appears to be. Whoops.

Yeah, I almost universally hate stuff that overtly feels like it's stroking the male ego, even stuff that should otherwise appeal to me (e.g. Princess Mononoke - though that obviously approaches it from a completely different angle compared to something like I Want to Eat Your Pancreas). It often causes me to immediately deconstruct it: "So the most completely a/pathetic guy with zero friends and social skills magically becomes close to HOT GIRL...who randomly gloms onto him because she needs him due to her being terminally ill and inexplicably not having any other outlets because of ridiculous reasons that are quickly glossed over and which would never practically apply to any normal functioning person in real life, thereby giving him an opportunity that he doesn't really deserve to help him grow to be a better and more capable person over the course of the story completely at her expense as she declines in health - her entire existence and subsequent doom in the story ultimately proving to just make him better while providing some cheap sadness near the end." I only read like 15-20% of it, but that's probably more or less accurate in broad strokes, right? I hate it, just can't do it.

In this case, it was a long time friend of mine who is a married, adult woman that recommended it to me, so that doesn't really track...but on the other hand, I've known her since we were teenagers and she was a pretty instrumental part of making it so I never investigated anime to any great degree because everything contemporary I saw that she and most other anime/manga fans were interested in always looked mindbreakingly terrible to me, so, you know, it's ultimately pretty fitting, .

Yeah, that's pretty much the movie. She is bending over backwards for a person who doesn't give a single **** about her (at first). It's ... just weird. There's so many other people who would have gladly offered every minute of their lives I guess. Case in point: Her other girl friend who is saying exactly that at the end of the movie.

Her Lie In April did a much better job at this, since here the male main character at least had reasons that didn't scream incel at every moment.

[Bartimaeus]

27 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Yeah, that's pretty much the movie. She is bending over backwards for a person who doesn't give a single **** about her (at first). It's ... just weird. There's so many other people who would have gladly offered every minute of their lives I guess. Case in point: Her other girl friend who is saying exactly that at the end of the movie.

Her Lie In April did a much better job at this, since here the male main character at least had reasons that didn't scream incel at every moment.

Yeah, see, I only read like 15-20% of it, and all I really saw to that point was that A. she was sick, and B. he was pathetic. Somehow, even though I don't think I've ever actually finished reading or watching a story that plays out like this, I recognize the signs for it pretty much every time and immediately nope out. These kinds of dramas so clearly telegraph what they are about and practically everything they're going to do within roughly the first five to ten minutes, and I just...nah. Structurally speaking, I like to see characters with unique personalities, traits, and mannerisms behaving at their normal baseline so that I can rightly determine how interesting/likeable/relatable/empathizable they are before you start to cut them down and dump all their crap on me - if you don't give me an opportunity or reason to like or care about the characters in the first place, there's simply no reason to be affected by them. But other people that aren't me are clearly better at getting what stuff like that was going for even in the absence of normal characterization stuff, so I guess it's not as big of a problem for the rest of y'all as it is for me...which, I'm not going to lie, simultaneously makes me both mad and a little envious, .

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

On the other hand, you are missing out on the actual plot twist.

 

It's not the illness that kills her.

Still think it was a good movie. But pretty much same thing as the manic pixie dream girl trope.

/Edit: Actually this IS the manic pixie dream girl trope, heh.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Lexx

[Bartimaeus]

5 minutes ago, Lexx said:

On the other hand, you are missing out on the actual plot twist.

I hope it was a kind of reverse and that the main character became a zombie and actually ate her pancreas, that's the only way that would possibly make it better.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[InsaneCommander]

Narutaru 6

I’m not understanding anything anymore.

 

Spoiler

So one of the cars pursuing Naozumi and Akira was actually being driven by Naozumi’s dragon? And did he turn it into a naked Akira at home?

 

[majestic]

I've read the plot blurb for the Pancreas movie. Now, bear with me for a bit, how about this setup:

Girl is shown to be a normal schoolgirl, doing normal schoolgirl stuff. She is popular, has friends, is part of various school activities. Meanwhile Mr. Incel is just a random, not very popular guy in class. Schoolgirl gets the diagnosis and does not decide to hide it, but her friends suddenly start treating her like a delicate flower, she's no longer allowed to participate at some of the activities she likes for fear of hurting her (or whatever). Everyone is having pity parties with her. Some might distance themselves. Take your pick.

Through <whatever> she starts to interact with random, not very popular guy and they bond over him treating her like a regular person.

Done. The rest can play out in a similar fashion, but all of a sudden there's a reason for her conncetion to random guy, there's a decent emotional stake and the ending could be suitably tragic and poignant. In theory that would even be doable in feature film length.

Sign of the times, I guess. Just skip the slow, boring introduction parts and jump right into the tragedy stuff. Plink, plink, plink plink... <funeral march>

11 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Narutaru 6

I’m not understanding anything anymore.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

So one of the cars pursuing Naozumi and Akira was actually being driven by Naozumi’s dragon? And did he turn it into a naked Akira at home?

 

That's the car chase episode, right? That sure was something, especially with that abduction. But no, that was not Akira, just some other naked girl.   

Spoilerish for Akira, but that already came up:

Spoiler

By the way, did you guys get that Akira's father was sexually abusing her as a child? Creepy shoulder rub and all that.  

 

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

Her Lie In April did a much better job at this

The trouble with making that comparison is that one is an anime with good story and the other is a great story that just happened to be an anime. Her Lie in April is a hard bar to reach.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Sarex

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

That's the car chase episode, right? That sure was something, especially with that abduction. But no, that was not Akira, just some other naked girl.   

Spoilerish for Akira, but that already came up:

  Reveal hidden contents

By the way, did you guys get that Akira's father was sexually abusing her as a child? Creepy shoulder rub and all that.  

 

Yes.

Spoiler

The way she jerks away from him is a big read flag. But at this point her thing is doing the shaky eyes and trying to kill herself. Maybe her dragon will end up killing her dad.

 

[Amentep]

Speed Racer - The Most Dangerous Race (Part 1)

Speed finally meets Snake Oiler and the gang of stunt racers (of evil) before the deadliest race ever (think Ice Road Truckers, but with cars and jumping from mountaintop to mountain top and stuff).  Racer X warns Speed about how to be careful, Spritle and Chim-Chim do reconnaissance, Speed angrily roughs up Sparky for no reason and Trixie has to deal with floozies throwing themselves at Speed.  Spritle and Chim-Chim bring information  about a mod that will help Speed compete with the trick racers, but Pops collapses before he can complete it, leaving Speed to complete it alone and rush to the starting line...

Above, Speed obliviously signs autographs, while below Trixie reacts.

Chim-Chim and Spritle, when scouting, disguise themselves and use a jalopy...for reasons...

[Bartimaeus]

7 minutes ago, majestic said:

I've read the plot blurb for the Pancreas movie. Now, bear with me for a bit, how about this setup:

Girl is shown to be a normal schoolgirl, doing normal schoolgirl stuff. She is popular, has friends, is part of various school activities. Meanwhile Mr. Incel is just a random, not very popular guy in class. Schoolgirl gets the diagnosis and does not decide to hide it, but her friends suddenly start treating her like a delicate flower, she's no longer allowed to participate at some of the activities she likes for fear of hurting her (or whatever). Everyone is having pity parties with her. Some might distance themselves. Take your pick.

Through <whatever> she starts to interact with random, not very popular guy and they bond over him treating her like a regular person.

Done. The rest can play out in a similar fashion, but all of a sudden there's a reason for her conncetion to random guy, there's a decent emotional stake and the ending could be suitably tragic and poignant. In theory that would even be doable in feature film length.

Sign of the times, I guess. Just skip the slow, boring introduction parts and jump right into the tragedy stuff. Plink, plink, plink plink... <funeral march>

That description immediately called to mind the first episode of season 4 Stranger Things for me - the dynamic between Chrissy the cheerleader and Eddie. That little bit of normal, humanizing, silly character stuff was probably the most fun I had in that season, and then we immediately banished it away right after in favor of same old monster mash trash with the usual suspects when wotsitsface* caved her face in and Eddie had to go into hiding for half of the season. Mm, no - you had me, and then ya lost me.

*No, I don't remember what the monster was called, and who gives a crap?

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Just now, Amentep said:

Speed Racer - The Most Dangerous Race (Part 1)

Speed finally meets Snake Oiler and the gang of stunt racers (of evil) before the deadliest race ever (think Ice Road Truckers, but with cars and jumping from mountaintop to mountain top and stuff).  Racer X warns Speed about how to be careful, Spritle and Chim-Chim do reconnaissance, Speed angrily roughs up Sparky for no reason and Trixie has to deal with floozies throwing themselves at Speed.  Spritle and Chim-Chim bring information  about a mod that will help Speed compete with the trick racers, but Pops collapses before he can complete it, leaving Speed to complete it alone and rush to the starting line...

Above, Speed obliviously signs autographs, while below Trixie reacts.

Chim-Chim and Spritle, when scouting, disguise themselves and use a jalopy...for reasons...

[Bartimaeus]

what is this person

like, what

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

what is this person

like, what

It's Abeloth. Avert your eyes before it notices you!

[Bartimaeus]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/9eecebmwncfq8ap/mpc-hc64_KeJS1skIML.mp4

I had to go find and re-watch this scene. I imagine it's probably difficult for some people in here to believe that this, too, is technically anime.

Also, she looks slightly less insane seeing the full frame:

Charlie Brown-looking lady...

Edited November 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

7 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

That description immediately called to mind the first episode of season 4 Stranger Things for me - the dynamic between Chrissy the cheerleader and Eddie. That little bit of normal, humanizing, silly character stuff was probably the most fun I had in that season, and then we immediately banished it away right after in favor of same old monster mash trash with the usual suspects when wotsitsface* caved her face in and Eddie had to go into hiding for half of the season. Mm, no - you had me, and then ya lost me.

*No, I don't remember what the monster was called, and who gives a crap?

That was a lot of episode runtime spent on something that ended up being mostly pointless. Crissy was killed off almost instantly and the only point was Max and Robin recalling something that happened with Crissy, which ultimately makes no difference.

Spoiler

Monster name: Vecna. Former #1. Henry Creel.  

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/9eecebmwncfq8ap/mpc-hc64_KeJS1skIML.mp4

I had to go find and re-watch this scene. I imagine it's probably difficult for some people in here to believe that this, too, is technically anime.

Also, she looks slightly less insane seeing the full frame:

Charlie Brown-looking lady...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Narutaru 9-13

Well that was something. Unfortunately it appears that the anime was only half of the story and I'll have to finish it with the manga. The anime could stand on its own in many ways.....but I think it introduced a few too many elements that entice with mystery and haven't been delved into.

And for some reasons, everytime I see Hoshimaru I laugh. The deadpan expression when he shows up just sets me off.

Spoiler

For me at least, it added a bit of comedy when he strangled Hino-chan to death after Shiina couldn't do it.

 

[InsaneCommander]

Chainsaw Man 7

Another hilarious episode. Everyone goes to a party, gets drunk and crazy things happen.

I don’t recommend watching this after you eat.

 

16 hours ago, Make a contract with KP said:

And for some reasons, everytime I see Hoshimaru I laugh. The deadpan expression when he shows up just sets me off.

I feel the same. Especially when he turns his eyes to look at someone or something.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

25 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Chainsaw Man 7

Another hilarious episode. Everyone goes to a party, gets drunk and crazy things happen.

I don’t recommend watching this after you eat.

 

I feel the same. Especially when he turns his eyes to look at someone or something.

I guess I'll have to wait until after dinner for chainsawman.

The Narutaru manga is worth reading, but the part (volume 8 for me) right after the season finale of the anime is....yeah. The anime tames somethings down as well for sure. Hoshimaru is still there with his blank stares but.....(spoiler for the anime)

Shiina doesn't want anything to do with him after he strangled Hino-chan and he just follows her around.

[majestic]

17 hours ago, Make a contract with KP said:

Well that was something. Unfortunately it appears that the anime was only half of the story and I'll have to finish it with the manga. The anime could stand on its own in many ways.....but I think it introduced a few too many elements that entice with mystery and haven't been delved into.

It sure looks like the showrunner(s) expected to adapt the entire manga. The series is pretty condensed but otherwise fairly faithful. Seems strange that it never got finished, but on the other hand, it allegedly gets worse in the later manga chapters. It's probably unfit for adaptation as a series.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

It sure looks like the showrunner(s) expected to adapt the entire manga. The series is pretty condensed but otherwise fairly faithful. Seems strange that it never got finished, but on the other hand, it allegedly gets worse in the later manga chapters. It's probably unfit for adaptation as a series.

I've read the next volume and can confirm it gets worse, at least in terms of what is happening to the kids. Poor Akira.

Spoiler

Akira doesn't die or get the Hiro-chan treatment, she just gets shuffled off to prison.

Edit: Chainsaw Man 7

So I was expecting a long fight, but it looks like the Eternity Devil doesn't last as long as eternity.

Denji finally gets a kiss but.......swallows more than he can chew.

Spoiler

So it's open ended whether or not Denji has the secks with eyepatch lady, but regardless this episode increases my suspicion that the boss lady is a yandere. The way it's framed that she's spending more time in Tokyo because of Denji is really setting off my alarms, and the eyepatch lady talking down on her has me curious. Maybe it's because eyepatch wants Aki.....but I get the feeling that their relationship isn't romantic and she's more concerned about him than jealous of the boss.

Ponchita is cute, I can't help but smile every time I see him.

The show is great, so far I'd say the biggest weakness is that the devils aren't particularly interesting, but I've been spoiled by JoJo where the monster Stand user of the week is incredibly memorable.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Make a contract with KP